The 20th century is a huge swath of time to comb through when considering failed pop music stars. But luckily, the 90s and 2000s have a cache of pretty good ones. Three stand out as artists who could have gone mainstream, but didn’t quite get the right momentum.
B*Witched
B*Witched was an Irish girl group formed in 1996 with twins Edele and Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou, and Sinéad O’Carroll. They disbanded in 2002, but gained a sizable following in the U.K. and U.S. before that. Their debut single, “C’est la Vie,” dropped in 1998, topping the U.K. Singles Chart and making them the youngest girl group to have a No. 1 in the country. Their debut album reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and they recorded the theme song for Sabrina: The Teenage Witch.
Despite the promise of what could be pop superstardom, B*Witched was dropped by Sony in 2001. They spent a year without a new record label, prompting a forced hiatus that had O’Carroll leaving the band. In 2012, they reunited, following reconciliation between Edele and O’Carroll after a falling out. They went on to tour, release an EP in 2014, a compilation in 2016, and another EP in 2024. B*Witched has enjoyed a newfound cult following, but they never quite broke into the mainstream during their first run.
S Club
Another pop group that seemed destined for stardom was S Club, also known as S Club 7 before dropping, reclaiming, and then dropping the 7 again. Formed in 1998 by Simon Fuller, dismissed former manager of the Spice Girls, S Club found relative success early on. But it didn’t last, and they didn’t manage to break into the mainstream like they could have.
Their 1999 debut S Club hit No. 1 in the U.K., and they went on to sell millions of records before suddenly breaking up in 2003. They even announced the news in the middle of a world tour. Following the break up, the reality of pop stardom came to light. The band was frustrated with the direction management was steering them toward and how they were treated. In 2019, former member Paul Cattermole revealed that Fuller had been signed to the record label instead of the band, and they barely got paid. Hannah Spearritt admitted in 2023 that the situation forced her into homelessness for six months.
Cattermole died of heart failure in April 2023, prompting the newly-reformed S Club to use their Good Times Tour to honor the former member. Since then, they have toured and released a single, but haven’t managed to capture the high of their initial fame. Probably for the best, considering the exploitative circumstances.
Willa Ford
Willa Ford started performing in 1999, but didn’t release a debut album until 2001. Still, she had a real shot at pop superstardom in the 20th-ish century. However, even with a great single like “I Wanna Be Bad,” Ford didn’t have the momentum to propel her into the mainstream at the time.
Her first big break could have been having her song “Lullaby” featured in Pokémon: The First Movie in 1998. Back then, she was still performing under the stage name Mandah. She started going by Willa Ford, and soon after was opening for The Backstreet Boys on their Millennium Tour. Willa Was Here dropped in 2001, an impressive pop debut that she wrote and produced mostly on her own. Unfortunately, her second single was released on September 11, 2001. Understandably, it was kind of overshadowed.
After several releases that didn’t catch a lot of attention, Ford stepped away from music around 2017. Amongst her music career, she also appeared in several television and film roles, including reality TV. She also did some modeling. After leaving the music industry, she started an interior design business. In October 2025, however, she released her first single in 22 years, “Burn Burn.”
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